Name

Year

Credit

credited As

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /media/www/hollywood/Web/releases/20150325105258/vendor/doctrine/common/lib/Doctrine/Common/Annotations/FileCacheReader.php on line 202
The Worst Pop Culture Moments in 2014 (So Far)

FOX
As the summer reaches its peak and the Fourth of July swiftly approaches, it's time to look back on the six months of 2014 that have passed in order to evaluate where we stand in terms of pop culture. But while most lists and articles choose to only focus on the best, most exciting, and most memorable moments that have occured in television and movies so far this year, we feel this retrospective wouldn't be complete without a look back on all of the worst that Hollywood has offered us in 2014. From unfunny, offensive premieres to movies that are held together by crude jokes and slow-motion sword fights to the once great shows that have seen a dramatic decline in quality, there's plenty to repress about the year in entertainment. Allow us to refresh your memory...
Dads Nobody had high expectations for Dads. It was a live-action Seth MacFarlane comedy about two immature best friends whose fathers move back in with them. It was probably never going to be a great sitcom. And yet, nobody expected just how terrible Dads actually turned out to be, an unfunny combinations of racism, misogyny and the way it turned two great character actors (Martin Mull and Peter Reigert) into walking fart jokes. Thankfully, Fox decided to put everyone out of their misery by cancelling the show in May, even though everyone blocked it from their minds well before that.
The Other Woman The Other Woman had everything it needed to be a success: two talented, likeable comedias in Leslie Mann and Cameron Diaz, a well-worn dramatic trope at the center of its plot, an attractive leading men, Nicki Minaj, and an early summer release date that ensured it wasn’t competing with any major blockbusters. Unfortunately, it also had a terrible, unfunny, insultingly stupid script that managed to somehow tell a story about women who bond over their cheating significant other in the most misogynistic fashion imaginable. Truly, The Other Woman did the impossible.
Sherlock, Season 3 For a while, it seemed as if the BBC’s modern adaptation of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories could do no wrong. They were smart, well-written, well-acted, and well-directed; more like mini-movies than a television series. But then the third season premiered, and instead of the sharply crafted mystery we had come to expect, we got a pandering, oddly-paced, awkwardly-written show that shunted the cases to the side in favor of plotholes and fangirl fodder. The fact that we had to wait three years for Sherlock to make such a disappointing return only compounded all of our issues into a giant letdown of a season.
Super Fun Night After her breakout roles in Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids, America wanted nothing more than to spend more time with Rebel Wilson. Unfortunately, they changed their minds once her TV show, Super Fun Night, premiered. Everything that they loved about Wilson – the accent, the confidence, the charm, the wit, the jokes, the sweetness – was gone, and in its place was an painfully awkward, unfunny show with a painfully awkward, unlikable protagonist with an American accent. Luckily, Pitch Perfect 2 is set to hit theaters soon, at which point everyone will forget that Super Fun Night ever happened, and our perfect image of Wilson as the ideal best friend will be restored.
That Awkward Moment Like The Other Woman, That Awkward Moment is a marvel. It’s a film that takes another familiar premise (in this case, friends making a pact to stay out of relationships, only to fall in love) and three of the most charming, talented and good looking young actors in Hollywood (Zac Efron, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan) and squanders its potential on bad voice overs and boner jokes. Also, Efron’s character might have been a sociopath. Regardless, That Awkward Moment felt like less of a disappointment than an insult to intelligent audiences everywhere.
Netflix
House of Cards, Season 2 If we were to ask you what the worst thing about the first season of House of Cards was, chances are you’d say the convoluted policy talk, Francis petty feuds, or or the unrealistic way he managed to get away with everything. Unfortunately, showrunner Beau Willimon disagreed with the rest of us, and made those three elements the focus of the entire second season. He must have assumed that we’d be too distracted by Kevin Spacey chewing the scenery to mind the boring, long-winded and convoluted discussions of foreign policy, the comic idiocy of President Walker, the far-fetched plots designed to conveniently dispose of characters who asked questions, and the fact that Francis had turned from a manipulative power player into a full-blown cartoon villain. We wouldn’t be surprised if next season, he wore a top hat and a monocle and twirled his mustache during his asides to the camera.
The Legend of Hercules If you were in the Twilight films and your name isn’t Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, or Anna Kendrick, your biggest career challenge is overcoming the stigma of being a supporting player in the most devisive movie series of all time. So we don’t blame Kellan Lutz for branching out into leading man territory with The Legend of Hercules. How was he to know that the film would be stupid, nonsensical and only tangentially related to its source material? Or that it would be a cheap-looking, boring, plodding mess that lacked any sense of fun? Really, he was just trying to be something other than Emmett Cullen for a change.
A Million Ways to Die in the West Seth MacFarlane has not had a great year so far. First, critics reacted to Dads as if someone had dumped a pile of hot garbage on their freshly mowed lawn, and then he made A Million Ways to Die in the West, a comedy that basically shot Blazing Saddles in the face. Terribly unfunny, over-reliant on references and repeated jokes and a waste of a stellar cast, the worst thing about the film was the fact that it completely lacked MacFarlane’s voice, which, while not for everyone, at least has a distinctive comedic perspective. At least there’s always Ted 2, right?
I Wanna Marry Harry Sometimes, a network isn’t just content to put crap on television to fill airtime during the summer. Sometimes, they want to provoke a reaction – any reaction – and so they come up with a show that crushes your soul, and destroys any lingering hope you might have had in not only the future of television, but also society as a whole. In 2014, that show was I Wanna Marry Harry, a festering sore disguised as a reality TV competition in which girls are tricked into competing for the affections of a potato with legs. And that’s the nicest way I could possibly describe that show.
The Cancelation of Enlisted What hurts the most about losing Enlisted, Fox’s funny, original and criminally underrated show isn’t the fact that the network made it impossible for the show to gain a following and then used its lack of ratings as an excuse for cancelation. It’s not that we lost a wonderful, well-written show that could be both hysterically funny and incredibly moving. It wasn’t even that the world never got a chance to appreciate the talents of the wonderful ensemble, all of whom created hilarious, realistic, delightful characters. No, what hurts the most about the decision to cancel Enlisted is that it was announced in the same week that I Wanna Marry Harry premiered. Never has a metaphorical slap in the face felt so painful.
Follow @hollywood_com
//
Follow @julesemm
//

Marvel Comics
After teetering on the cusp of creative disaster, Marvel has finally put its Ant-Man film back on track, but the project - now on its second director - still looks like a bit of a question mark for the blockbuster studio. Luckily we might have some new answers flowing through the rumor mill. According to some new rumors from JoBlo, Paul Rudd's Scott Lang character will be a petty thief and single dad that steals the Ant-Man technology from Hank Pym, played by Michael Douglas. There are also whispers of the identity of the new villain, as the site also alleges that comic book character Darren Cross will be the film's central antagonist. In the comics, Cross is the founder of Cross Technological Enterprises, a large bio-tech firm that rivals other Marvel universe corporate giants like Stark Industries and Oscorp. Cross will reportedly have a suit similar to Ant-Man's but more militaristic, and might be played by Corey Stoll or Patrick Wilson. It's important to note that Cross' character in the comics takes on a Hulk-like appearance, but the film might not head in that direction, given the current rumors. Cross' cousin, William Cross, is also a villain named Crossfire in the comics.
While these are all rumors, and should be taken with the appropriately sized grain of salt, we wonder if Ant-Man would benefit from heading in a different direction villain-wise. Darren Cross is only the latest in a long parade of evil businessmen wreaking havoc in the Marvel universe. There's been Jeff Bridges' Obadiah Stane in the first Iron Man, Sam Rockwell's sniveling Justin Hammer in Iron Man 2, and Guy Pierce's Aldrich Killian in Iron Man 3. But even outside of Disney's output, comic book films are completely stuffed with corporate boogeymen. There's the enterprising Bolivar Trask in this year's X-Men: Days of Future Past, and yet another rendition of Lex Luthor via Jesse Eisenberg in the upcoming Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The sinister businessman has remained a well used trope in the sprawling Marvel universe, and while it makes sense that Tony Stark would frequently bump heads with other enterprising industrialists, hearing that Ant-Man might also be clashing with big immoral businessmen has us wishing that the film would look for some other antagonists. Ant-Man, whose chief ability is to grow very small and still retain his normal strength, is comic book absurdity at its very finest, and the fact that he can communicate telepathically with ants makes it even more over the top. It feels like the powers that be at Marvel should have something zanier up their sleeves than yet another cutthroat capitalist in a three-piece suit that worships the American dollar. A weird hero should have even weirder rogues to do battle with.
With all that said, there might be more to Darren Cross than meets the eye. Maybe the character does turn into a giant pink Hulk in the film's climax? We'll just have to wait and see.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @CurrentlyJordan
//

Mickey Rooney's kids are contesting the late movie veteran's will, insisting he faced "undue influence" when he signed it weeks before his death. Seven of Rooney's biological children have filed suit in Los Angeles seeking that their father's will be invalidated.
They lost out when the actor's documents were made public after his death last month (Apr14) - he named his stepson and caretaker Mark Aber as the beneficiary to his estate, which is valued at $18,000 (GBP11,250).
Rooney's kids claim Aber and the estate's current executor, attorney Michael Augustine, took "advantage" of their father.
In the legal papers they have filed, the siblings claim Aber and Augustine "suggested and dictated the contents of the (will)" and "arranged for the execution of the document" at a time when Rooney was "wholly under the influence" of the two men.
Augustine's lawyer Richard Petty tells People.com, "We think the contest is utterly without merit and that there is no truth at all to any of the allegations."

Is it turtle time yet?
The latest adventure for the heroes in a half-shell is still a couple months away, but the newest trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gives us a somewhat new preview of Jonathan Liebesman and Michael Bay's burly, live-action update of the turtles. While we've seen most of the footage here before, we do finally get a glimpse at all four turtles in their element: Raphael is sporting a trademark scowl, Leonardo is looking stoic, Michelangelo is making jokes (and seriously freaking out April O'Neil), and Donatello is buried knee deep in his own gadgetry. Now that we've gotten a look at the foursome, the time has come to ask the all-important question: Which is your favorite Ninja Turtle?
It's a question that has broken friendships, forged new ones, and charged schoolyard debates for the past two decades. Your favorite turtle speaks volumes about the kind of person you are. We've decided to break out the old Psychology 101 textbook we didn't manage to sell back in college, and analyze your choice of your favorite Ninja Turtle.
LEONARDO
Leo is the leader of the group and a devout student of martial arts.If you're favorite Turtle is Leonardo: You’re the alpha male. You’re a natural born leader, and you walk around with so much swaggering confidence and charisma, people glom onto you like thirsty leeches. You love to swoop in and solve petty squabbles, and you love the fact that people look up to you. Whatever interest you take, you feel the need to dominate in it. You’re a high school quarterback, the captain of the soccer team, the captain of the basketball team, the captain of the water polo team, hell, you even found a way to become the captain of the local AA group and you’re not even an alcoholic. You almost exclusively wear varsity jackets and you rotate them throughout the week on a very specific schedule. You often go out looking for old ladies to help cross the street. If no old ladies want to cross the street, you make them. You are almost literally the best at everything.Currently on your bookshelf: How to Win Friends and Influence People.Currently on your DVR: Law and Order: SVU. You get a contact high from all the justice. Watching Elliot Stabler hospitalize sexual abusers makes you as giddy as a schoolgirl. Justice feels so good.
RAPHAEL
Raph is the brawn of the group. He's aggressive and pugnacious. Two traits that often get him into trouble.If your favorite Turtle is Raphael: You're in serious need of anger management. You sometimes worry that you’ve forgotten how to smile. You've never encountered a fight you couldn't start...and finish. You love not only having anger, but having righteous anger, and any opportunity to really tell someone off should be cherished like a newborn baby, and you definitely hate babies. You want to gut your coworker that's been sniffling every five seconds for the past three hours. You get way too angry at the latest comic book film news well before it's time to form an actual opinion. You’ve already stopped reading because some stupid Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles personality guide isn’t gonna tell you how to live your life. The nerve of them. "The nerve of them" is also one of your most commonly used phrases. Deep down though, under all that hate and animosity, you really just want to be loved.Currently on your bookshelf: Tao of Jeet Kun Do by Bruce Lee.Currently on your DVR: Sons of Anarchy. Watching all those bikers rain blows upon everyone and thing they cross paths with is like meditation to you.
Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures
MICHELANGELO
Mikey is the fun-loving, nunchakus-weilding, pizza-scarfing prankster of ther group. If your favorite Ninja Turtle is Michaelangelo: You’re the easy-going jokester of your group. Matthew McConaughey from Dazed and Confused is your patron saint of cool. You laze around to surf rock and wonder why puka shell necklaces aren’t a thing anymore... but you don’t worry about trends, because that’s just not your bag, man. You break out in hives if you’re away from the beach for too long. You also an avid fan of pizza. Like a really big fan. Like seriously, get some help, you have a debilitating pizza addiction. You’ve been banned for life from every Dominos in the tri-state area and just looking at a block of pepperoni can send you on a greasy downward spiral. But it’s cool, brah.Currently on your bookshelf: The Art of Pizza Making. (It was a gift!)Currently on your DVR: Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
DONATELLO
Donnie is the brains of the group. He's the smartest turtle by an underground mile.If your favorite Turtle is Donatello: You’re a nerd and proud of it. You're super smart, and you take your friends to museums because it will be "good for them." You put a roll of tape on perfectly good tortoise-shell spectacles just to increase your nerd aesthetic. Did I mention you were into thick-framed glasses way before the collective population of Brooklyn claimed them as its ironic eyewear of choice? You take pride in having volumes of information at the ready at all times, and can roll out digits of Pi like bullets from a machine gun, and get a jolt of pride when some random factoid you know can be useful in conversation. You’ve made it your mission to be the smartest guy on the internet, and you’re actually alarmingly close. You make Trivial Pursuit your constant bitch.Currently on your bookshelf: Ulysses, because you wan’t to be that guy who says he understood Ulysses, and how it was actually quite the leisurely read.Currently on your DVR: Cosmos. You already know everything and more about astronomy, but you watch it the same way regular folks sometimes zone out to old Everybody Loves Raymond episodes they've seen a dozen times.
Follow @Hollywood_com
Follow @CurrentlyJordan

Getty Images
For months now, Hollywood.com has been entrenched in a heated debate. A debate that warrants more fire and enmity than anything in the spectrums of politics, religion, or professional sports. We're talking the long-gestating battle of Mara vs. Mara. And finally, we've taken to the public to express our horses in this neverending race. So whose side are you on — Team Kate or Team Rooney?
Netflix
PRO KATEJulia Emmanuele
The first season of American Horror Story is probably the most insane of the three, and it often felt to me as if Ryan Murphy was just throwing out every single idea he had in an attempt to make the show as shocking and full of plot twists as humanly possible, which, for the most part, is what Kate Mara's character Hayden is there for. In theory, she exists purely to cause more conflict between Ben and Vivien, due to the fact that she’s mentally unstable and attempts to manipulate Ben into leaving his wife to help her raise the baby she’s carrying. But Kate’s performance keeps her from being a walking plot device, and she creates a character that is by turns terrifying and unpredictable, desperate, and sadly seems to genuinely believe that she and Ben have something special. She truly hopes that she can have a family with him, and even though she’s willing to accomplish that by any means necessary – including attempting to steal Vivien’s baby after both she and Hayden are dead – Kate tempers all of that instability with genuine emotion. In her last scene, where she tells Tate that Violet will never love him, it’s petty, sure, but it’s also resigned. Kate takes a character that is, like every other character on that show, there primarily for shock value, and finds the humanity in her insane plot. She gives the character depth, and makes you feel for her, even as she’s carrying out her insane plan.
Then there’s House of Cards and Zoe Barnes. Zoe’s the kind of character that audiences will either love or hate, and I’ve seen strong opinions on both sides. Personally, I’m a big fan of Zoe, and a lot of that has to do with the way that Kate plays her. She’s ambitious and cunning, willing to do whatever she needs to for her own benefit, and doesn’t care who she needs to hurt in order to advance, all of which makes her the perfect counterpart to Frank Underwood. But Kate doesn’t just make her a female version of Frank; she gives her layers and depth that help ground the ambition and drive that characterizes Zoe. There’s an episode where Frank talks about how it’s important that he and Zoe keep secrets from each other, and how they are different things to different people. Kate’s whole performance epitomizes that. You get the sense that she’s hiding something about herself from everyone – that maybe the tough, ambitious front that she puts on the whole time is just there to keep her vulnerability hidden. The best example of this is the scene where Zoe comes over to the Underwoods' house, tries on Claire’s dress and ends her affair with Frank, which reads both like a little girl playing dress-up and the start of Zoe becoming a legitimate threat. She’s imitating Claire’s earlier behavior, and she’s acting in a way that is slightly childish. But Kate also makes sure that Zoe’s resolve comes across just as clearly as her pettiness. He’s not taking her seriously, but she’s establishing herself as someone who will try to take Frank down. Kate gets all of that across in the two minutes it takes for her to try on the dress and walk around the room.
It’s a testament to all of the layers that Kate gives Zoe that the character and her performance gets more compelling with every re-watch. Look at all of Zoe’s weird, nervous tics that fade away over the course of the season, as she becomes more confident and starts taking control of the story. She starts the first season biting her nails and slouching in on herself; by the end, she’s taking the lead away from Lucas and Jeanine, both of whom are older and more experienced and holding her own against Frank. Zoe’s awkwardness, her fear, and her ruthlessness are all clear in the way that Kate carries herself and delivers every line, and all of that comes together to create a character that would likely not be nearly as compelling with another actress in the role.
ANTI KATEMichael Arbeiter
Would you still watch House of Cards if Kevin Spacey wasn't in it, and it was just Kate's character? I wouldn't. But I'd still watch Dragon Tattoo if they ousted Daniel Craig and just made it about Rooney. You would too, admit it. It'd be better.
Also, boring name.
Columbia Pictures via Everett Collection
PRO ROONEYMichael Arbeiter
Here's the thing about Rooney Mara — there's not just one thing about Rooney Mara. To one of you, Rooney Mara might be a sociopathic code-breaker, cemented irreparably into her Girl with the Dragon Tattoo role. To another, the mile-a-minute Sorkin fixture who set an ingenious egomaniac off on his quest for digital world domination. Rooney has not had the luxury of pinning her talents and memorability to the forced familiarity of a television role. Rooney opts for movies, which, no matter how many times you tweet otherwise, is still the superior artistic medium to television. In the past five years alone, Rooney has amounted a slew of big screen roles that have identified her as a creative mystic and an on-the-rise industry figure.
We'll start with her Dragon Tattoo transformation, perhaps the role that adorned her with the degree of notability that she enjoys today. Yes, Kate's House of Cards character requires some dexterity, but the stretching required to playing her ballsy reporter Zoe barely compares to that inherent in roles like Lisbeth Salander... and that's considering the fact that both characters come from the same filmmaker: David Fincher (it should be noted that both House of Cards and Dragon Tattoo are adaptations). From the get-go, Rooney is thrust into a decidedly challenging world — her ability to glimmer with charm through the veneer of Fincher's abrasive adaptation is a testament to her uncompromising film presence.
Contrastingly, Rooney fits right into the mellifluous portrait of Spike Jonze's Her, even when introduced three quarters of the way through the movie. Playing an organic alternative to Samantha, the "ideal woman" who outgrows her romantic partner Theodore Twombly (god, I just love that name), Rooney socks her onscreen partner Joaquin Phoenix and the audience alike with a ton of earnestness, anchoring the "fantasy" of the film back to Earth but never robbing it of its sense of wonder. That's all in the performance, which keeps her shy of Hollywood's traditional platform of mysognistic villainy. Rooney understands the role and deals with it responsibly, and we're never beckoned to look away even when she's smacking us with cold, hard truths.
But Rooney is not reliant on high concept roles to let her skill set show. As the diabolical loon at the center of Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects, she balances humanity and monstrosity to an absolutely chilling degree. As the star of the haunting crime drama Ain't Them Bodies Saints, she allows for the appreciation of the full spectrum of human desperation. And even though it might be her smallest major role, Rooney's turn at the forefront of Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network is powerful, funny, caustic, endearing, frightening, and permanent enough to have us believe that it could truly spark an egomaniacal genius' plight to take over the digital world.
ANTI ROONEYJulia Emmanuele
I’ve never felt particularly invested in any of Rooney’s characters. To me, there’s never any depth there, never anything to make it seem as if there’s a character underneath the costume and the script. Her performances have always come across as relatively flat to me. She delivers her lines well, and she can look affected by the scene, but there’s never any gravity to it, never anything that makes me want to keep watching her the way I can with Kate. She’s just kind of… there, whereas Kate’s characters are fully formed, interesting people in their own right, and she finds ways to hint at the layers underneath, and a past that has shaped the way the characters approach situations now.
What do you think?
Follow @Hollywood_com
//

Warner Bros Pictures via Everett Collection
Even without having read Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale, I have the unshakable feeling that Akiva Goldsman's film adaptation does not do the story justice. Speckled throughout the moreover colorless movie are hints of an intriguing idea — a fantasy epic about an angel-demon bureaucracy coexisting with the human race throughout the span of 20th century New York City, operating within the parameters of a didactic miracle-granting system — an idea that doesn't come close to its full potential. In 118 minutes, we barely scratch the surface of the world in which an apparently immortal Colin Farrell finds himself. We see him cavort with Russell Crowe, a malicious gang-leader with netherworld origins, seek guidance from a mystical Pegasus, and carry out his destiny as the savior to a mysterious red-haired girl. But we never truly understand why any of this is happening. Not that it gets particularly confusing; on a plot level, it's all quite simple. But that's the problem — it shouldn't be.
The central conceit of the film is that everyone is put on this Earth with a divine "mission" to uphold. Farrell's gives us the narrative of Winter's Tale, introducing the various rules and officers of the supernatural regime along the way. Abandoned as a baby and brought up under the criminal regime of a Manhattanite from Hell (Crowe), Farrell ascends from orphan to petty thief to horse whispering renegade to whimsical lover of a dying Jessica Brown Findlay to ageless messiah... all without much clarity on the nature of the story (or stories) he's occupying, save for two ham-fisted scenes of exposition — one with Graham Greene (not the dead author) and one with Jennifer Connelly, who shows up halfway through the movie for some reason.
Warner Bros Pictures via Everett Collection
The world that Farrell is woven into has so many bright spots: we're on board for miracle quests, a magic-laden New York City, flying horses, and one of the biggest stars in Hollywood giving a cameo as the epitome of evil. Everything we see is fun, but it all flutters away as quickly as it arrives. We don't want quick bites of the way angels and demons do business with one another on the streets of Manhattan, we want the whole meal. A more thorough exploration of Helprin's world wouldn't just be doubly as interesting as the thin alternative we're offered in Goldsman's adaptation, it'd also fill in all the comprehensive gaps in Farrell's emotional throughline
We don't really understand so much of what happens to Farrell. Even when we're offered tangible explanations, we have no reason to understand why the Winter's Tale world works in such a way that Farrell might survive a 300-foot fall, develop amnesia, or sustain youth for a full century. What's more, we don't understand why Farrell's tale as a cog in this mystical machine is any more important than anyone else's. Or, if it's not, and we're simply asked to watch him carry out his quest as a glimpse into the vast, enigmatic system that Winter's Tale is ostensibly founded upon, we ... we don't understand enough of that world itself.
Warner Bros Pictures via Everett Collection
We're never invited close enough to any of the movie's attractive features for them to matter. So even when the movie does offer entertaining bits — in its fantastical elements, its detail of New Yorks old and new, or Farrell's admittedly charming romance with Findlay — we're not engaged enough to really connect with any of them.
Still, the flying horse is pretty cool.
2.5/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
| Follow @Hollywood_com

Lions Gate via Everett Collection
When we last left our heroes, they had conquered all opponents in the 74th Annual Hunger Games, returned home to their newly refurbished living quarters in District 12, and fallen haplessly to the cannibalism of PTSD. And now we're back! Hitching our wagons once again to laconic Katniss Everdeen and her sweet-natured, just-for-the-camera boyfriend Peeta Mellark as they gear up for a second go at the Capitol's killing fields.
But hold your horses — there's a good hour and a half before we step back into the arena. However, the time spent with Katniss and Peeta before the announcement that they'll be competing again for the ceremonial Quarter Quell does not drag. In fact, it's got some of the film franchise's most interesting commentary about celebrity, reality television, and the media so far, well outweighing the merit of The Hunger Games' satire on the subject matter by having Katniss struggle with her responsibilities as Panem's idol. Does she abide by the command of status quo, delighting in the public's applause for her and keeping them complacently saturated with her smiles and curtsies? Or does Katniss hold three fingers high in opposition to the machine into which she has been thrown? It's a quarrel that the real Jennifer Lawrence would handle with a castigation of the media and a joke about sandwiches, or something... but her stakes are, admittedly, much lower. Harvey Weinstein isn't threatening to kill her secret boyfriend.
Through this chapter, Katniss also grapples with a more personal warfare: her devotion to Gale (despite her inability to commit to the idea of love) and her family, her complicated, moralistic affection for Peeta, her remorse over losing Rue, and her agonizing desire to flee the eye of the public and the Capitol. Oftentimes, Katniss' depression and guilty conscience transcends the bounds of sappy. Her soap opera scenes with a soot-covered Gale really push the limits, saved if only by the undeniable grace and charisma of star Lawrence at every step along the way of this film. So it's sappy, but never too sappy.
In fact, Catching Fire is a masterpiece of pushing limits as far as they'll extend before the point of diminishing returns. Director Francis Lawrence maintains an ambiance that lends to emotional investment but never imposes too much realism as to drip into territories of grit. All of Catching Fire lives in a dreamlike state, a stark contrast to Hunger Games' guttural, grimacing quality that robbed it of the life force Suzanne Collins pumped into her first novel.
Once we get to the thunderdome, our engines are effectively revved for the "fun part." Katniss, Peeta, and their array of allies and enemies traverse a nightmare course that seems perfectly suited for a videogame spin-off. At this point, we've spent just enough time with the secondary characters to grow a bit fond of them — deliberately obnoxious Finnick, jarringly provocative Johanna, offbeat geeks Beedee and Wiress — but not quite enough to dissolve the mystery surrounding any of them or their true intentions (which become more and more enigmatic as the film progresses). We only need adhere to Katniss and Peeta once tossed in the pit of doom that is the 75th Hunger Games arena, but finding real characters in the other tributes makes for a far more fun round of extreme manhunt.
But Catching Fire doesn't vie for anything particularly grand. It entertains and engages, having fun with and anchoring weight to its characters and circumstances, but stays within the expected confines of what a Hunger Games movie can be. It's a good one, but without shooting for succinctly interesting or surprising work with Katniss and her relationships or taking a stab at anything but the obvious in terms of sending up the militant tyrannical autocracy, it never even closes in on the possibility of being a great one.
3.5/5
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//

NBC
Parks and Recreation has settled back into its familiar groove, with Leslie's (Amy Poehler) struggle to keep her council seat serving as a nice framing device that informs the stories around the office. But no real forward momentum is achieved, primarily because the petty Councilman Jamm (Jon Glaser) ties her up in an obviously manufactured trial about an inappropriate tweet sent from the Parks Dept. Twitter.
For all the talk, we never get to see the offending picture... but it's not a full-on Anthony Weiner, just a racy snapshot of a pair of lips and an eggplant and the caption "See you tonight. Hope you like tongue baths, you big nasty fireman," which, as far as inappropriate tweets go, seems pretty tame. However, it didn't stop Leslie from being railroaded at every opportunity for her negligence by Jamm. Surprisingly, we get Donna (Retta) in a main plot this week, as she proved to be the offending tweet-er, and the trial uncovers some rude things she wrote about Leslie on her personal page. However, for some reason, the conflict between Leslie and Donna clears up through Chris (Rob Lowe), not via a confrontation between Leslie Donna. It would have been nice to see a little bit more of Leslie and Donna alone, since the season (and the show) has been a little Donna-starved, and Donna's frustration at Leslie being "annoying" was solved a bit too simply.
It also continues its parade of guest stars, with the appearance of Tatiana Maslany as Nadia, a doctor from Indianapolis looking to book a park with Tom (Aziz Ansari) and April (Aubrey Plaza). You'd think Tom would have more game after dating Jama Williamson, Natalie Morales, Rashida Jones, and even Jenny Slate as the crazy Mona-Lisa. But, instead, at the sight of Maslany he panics and immediately begins faking a British accent. Maslany is of course best known for her lingual flexibility on Orphan Black, so to see her baffled by Tom's attempt at being dapper (and then, of course, being forced to drop it) feels like a nice reference to that show while still grounding it in character. From there, Tom attempts bribery, stalling, and eventually, outright lying in hopes of charming Nadia, but in the end what wins her over is April's blunt assessment of why she should give him a chance: "You're way out of his league. There's literally no risk for you at all."
The ensemble feels a little light this week, but that may just be due to the lack of Ann and Andy, as almost every other character appears and had something to do. Ron (Nick Offerman) and Ben (Adam Scott) tackle the thrilling subject of estate planning, as we find out that Ron's will is a single sentance he wrote when he was eight (of course it is) and he now has an outrageous amount of money (of course he does). Eventually, Ben must convince Ron to file a real will in order to protect his children. While Ron's reluctant transformation into a family man is sweet, it's also becoming somewhat one-note already, and could be time to switch it up for the character. But if they keep adding great bits like the ongoing accountant/lawyer rivalry between Ben and his attorney, I'll still be laughing. Who knew lawyers hated puns so much?
Questions, Comments, and Concerns:-Ron, on making his first joke: "I don't care for it."-Tom's burgundy suit was pretty fly. Looks like now that Rent-A-Swag is defunct he's got all of those clothes to himself again. -The Anti-Leslie "Committee to Recall Leslie Knope" farting Knope dolls is kind of lame for a show that's this funny.-Leslie's idea to add question mark stickers to "Recall Knope" signs backfires when April gets ahold of them, making every sign around the town read like a hypothetical. Also great: she creates a question mark plastered fascinator in the shape of an exploding firework. -#BitchBoss is obviously an insult, while #BossBitch is a total compliment. #PsychoBoss probably most accurately describes Leslie.-Ron is confident that he will not die at the hand of an accountant, lawyer, or wild boar.-DJ Roomba lives!
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
Follow @Kaylaahawkins
//

Fox Searchlight
Painting such a vivid picture of a time period over 150 years in the past, 12 Years a Slave still manages to touch on universal, timeless elements of humanity — the good and the bad. Although we might not be able to imagine any connection between our present progressive society and the atrocious nightmare that was the era of American slavery, Steve McQueen's powerful drama serves not only as a haunting true story but in parts an allegory for the ways in which we still have many steps to take before achieving the liberty we strive for. Sarah Paulson, who stars in the film as Mistress Epps, the wife of slave owner Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender), feels that 12 Years a Slave is an important piece of cinema in the necessary task of keeping these horror stories forever in our memories. In our interview with Paulson, the actress discusses the film, its influence, and working inside the mind of an indefensible character.
Sarah Paulson: I was completely unfamiliar with [the story]. Of course, my hope is that now that this movie is done, and as powerful as it is, that the book that the movie is based on becomes required reading in schools. I remember being in school, and your American history book would have a chapter on slavery an inch thick, or something. To have something to go with it, to give it a very personal, specific story, would be kind of incredible.
I wasn't well versed in the history of slavery in the United States, beyond what I learned in school. It's one thing to hear the facts about a time, and it's another to hear a very personalized story. It's easier that way to take in the weight and the gravity of the whole time when you can follow one person's experience.
I want to talk a little bit about your character. In the movie, you have a sort of sliding scale of humanity. With the slave owners — you have Benedict Cumberbatch, who is a little bit more sympathetic. He's kinder. Still a slave owner.SP: For him, it's not even about his kindness. It's about economics. He probably, as a man, would have helped Solomon in a different way. But because of the financial loss he would withstand… but really [the film depicts] a time of economic reality, too, for the owners.
But then, on the other side, you have your character and Michael Fassbender's character, both of whom are obviously a lot crueler. I was wondering how, exactly, you viewed your character in that way. Did you see any humanity in her whatsoever?SP: I certainly didn't see the humanity in her on the page. But in terms of trying to find a way to act the part, I didn't want to just think about some sort of surface "evil." Because I don't think that's really… the cruelest person in the world doesn't walk around thinking they're the cruelest person in the world. They justify their behavior to themselves. I just decided that Mistress Epps was a product of her time. She was probably raised by racists. And because I don't think she has a certain emotional, spiritual, psychological depth of character — I don't think she's terribly self-reflective — she has limitations as far as she's willing to challenge the things she's been taught. So, instead of challenging them, she just dives right into them, and decides that her way of seeing things is the most right. In conjunction with the fact that the man she's married to is in love with another woman, who happens to be a slave on the property. And this longing that my husband has for Patsey is in plain view of everyone at the plantation, which is deeply embarrassing to her. So her way of fighting back is to try to win. She's only interested in winning, because she's so desperate, so afraid of being completely humiliated.
Does that vulnerability make the character easier to play?SP: Well, it wasn't even that I could think about trying to play her vulnerably, because I didn't think of it that way. But I had to find a way to justify her thoughts, and therefore her actions. Not as a viewer watching the movie, but as an actor playing her I had to do that. Of course, watching the movie, I think that she behaves indefensibly. But still, from an acting standpoint, I had to find a way to get inside of her head. It wasn't that it made it easier, it was the only way that I could figure out the how and the why to make it work.
Was there anything in particular that this movie taught you about the era of American slavery?SP: More than anything, what I think this movie taught me, was how petty everything in modern daily life can be, in terms of what we worry about how we concern ourselves, when really — especially as Americans — we have so much freedom. Not being able to get a cab 3:30 on a Friday afternoon has been in the past, and probably still will be in the future, very frustrating to me … it's just so easy to get undone by such simple things. When you see a movie like this and you experience a character like Solomon, you realize what the human spirit is capable of withstanding, and pushing through, and coming out the other side. The resiliency of that, I think, was very inspiring. That is what I take away most from the story — to try to be in the moment, and not take anything for granted. How lucky we all are, really.
Was there anything specific about Solomon, or any character in the movie, that you found the most painful, or the most difficult to learn about?SP: That's why I think the movie is important. Sometimes, when you put visuals, when you put imagery to something that you read, it makes it much more powerful. It goes inside of your brain, and it's hard to let it go. When you read things, you can kind of skip over things, sometimes. It was very powerful to read the script, obviously, and the book as well, but somehow, putting Chiwetel [Ejiofor]'s face to it… the whole thing is very painful to watch, I think. The idea of a person living freely, and then being captured and held against their will, and having no recourse and no rights. It's terrifying.
I want to go back to your character again. I thought it was very interesting, because I would consider her the character with the most power in the movie. When we first meet her, Michael Fassbender is domineering over her, but then there is kind of a shift.SP: I do think that the only place that Mistress Epps has any power is in making her husband feel small. So, she uses it whenever she can. The only time a person does that is when they themselves feel really small. So I actually think she struggles with a certain inadequacy. I think she is so fearful about her standing in society and in her own home. How she's viewed. The perception. Appearances are everything to her. And she's just so deeply embarrassed by her husband's behavior, and she uses that power that she has over him — which is to belittle him and embarrass him — in front of everyone. She does it whenever she can, to feel more powerful herself.
It's a delicate thing. You can't compare it to enslavement, but at the same time, women were not treated equally, and were considered less important and less valuable than men. But that still goes on today. As do all sorts of racism, as well. On the one hand, it really shows how far we've come. On another level, it shows how far we still have yet to go.
Is there anything else specifically that you think 12 Years a Slave has to say, allegorically, about our society today?SP: I don't really think that it is that different. People keep saying, "Why this movie now? What's what is important about this movie?" That question is what is important about this movie. There are so many things that are analogous to today's time period. Social stature … but I don't want to speak in reductive terms about what is analogous because it was a specific time in our country's history that was a boil on the skin of our country's history. It's something that nobody wants to talk about. It's a very common human experience to not want to look back, and when you do look back, to diminish the reality of what went on. Especially when what went on was negative and horrible. The mistreatment of people by other people.
SP: But it's hard. When you talk about today, we have an African-American president. I would never want to try to find things that are going on today in our society that are analogous completely to the time of slavery. But there are all these things that … continue to show that we are not as far along as we would like to be. Or as people think we are. People look back at slavery, and say, "We don't need to talk about that. We have an African-American president." Yeah, but we still have a ways to go. But I think people have decided that is a conversation that can be put to bed. And I think that is partly why this movie is unsettling to people. People don't want to know that this is what happened. And when you put it that viscerally in front of someone, you have a physical reaction to seeing some of these images, as well you should.
Follow @Michael Arbeiter
//
| Follow @Hollywood_com
//

Sakura/WENN
The almost unrecognisable photos of Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley in the press recently served as a sharp reminder that the second wave of punk-pop actually occurred much longer ago than you might have thought. Indeed, twelve years have passed since its heyday, the kind of timegap which suggests that a mini-revival is due any minute now. It might already be underway. Named after Wheatus' biggest hit, a Teenage Dirtbags compilation topped the UK charts last month, while Avril Lavigne's last single, "Here's To Never Growing Up," might as well have been titled "Complicated Part 2." While several of the sound's biggest hitters are unlikely to receive a glowing career reappraisal (hello Bowling For Soup!), the late 90s/early 00s movement did produce at least a handful of genuinely great singles that deserve to be given another lease of life. Here's a look at five of the best.
The Bloodhound Gang – "The Bad Touch"
Even by the scene's rather low standards, The Bloodhound Gang were considered as perhaps a touch too crude. This ode to the kind of mating habits you'd find on the Discovery Channel is undeniably juvenile. But buried beneath its stream of sexual metaphors, there's an equally ridiculous yet utterly addictive production which borrowed from '80s synth-pop long before it was fashionable to do so.
Alien Ant Farm – "Movies"
Their nu-metal take on "Smooth Criminal" lost its appeal after a few listens but the brilliantly buoyant follow-up single "Movies" suggested, extremely briefly, that there was more to the band than novelty covers of Michael Jackson classics.
Sum 41 – "Fatlip"
A full-throttle celebration of rebelliousness which revelled in the band’s 'lower middle class brat' status, "Fatlip" is a thrilling mix of Beastie Boys-esque rap, thunderous hard rock and pogo-inducing skate punk, which unlike many of Sum 41's peers, didn’t even try to take itself seriously.
Crazy Town – "Butterfly"
One of the '00s ultimate one-hit wonders, heavily tattooed L.A. natives Crazy Town gave the scene its first and only US chart-topper with this chilled slice of rap-rock, although admittedly take away the inspired Red Hot Chili Peppers guitar sample and there isn't much to it.
A – "Nothing"
The UK never really tried to compete with their US cousins when it came to punk-pop until 'boyband with guitars' outfits Busted and McFly came along. A frontman Jason Perry would later work with the latter, but it was on this 1999 breakthrough single that he first showcased his knack of blending explosive guitar riffs with soaring pop melodies.
Follow @Hollywood_com
//
MoreFall's 15 Most Anticipated Albums2013's Best Music Videos So FarConstructing the Perfect Bruno Mars Super Bowl Halftime Show
From Our Partners:40 Most Revealing See-Through Red Carpet Looks (Vh1)15 Stars Share Secrets of their Sex Lives (Celebuzz)